Warning: I have always said that this is not a how to hill walk guide, for various reasons. My somewhat anarchic style of walking, combined with post walk drinks and so forth is certainly not text book and cannot in any way be taken as guidance. This walk more than most as the walk vs alcoholic beverage factor was higher than most. Certainly the percentage of time spent in pub to time spent on hill was possibly the highest ever although there are a couple of hills e.g. Little Mell Fell or Glenridding Dodd that have run it a close second. Despite this the mishap factor was at an all time low.

We had booked ourselves a weekend in Ambleside in order primarily to attend the Hawkshead beer festival. The Hawkshead Brewery is one of Stuart’s favourites although to be honest not one of mine. With that aim in mind we had booked ourselves into budget accommodation in Ambleside as nothing was actually available in Staveley itself (where the brewery is) by the time we booked. There is a regular bus service running between the two villages which we would be able to make use of. We arrived fairly late into Ambleside on the Friday night, had a couple of glasses of wine and went to bed – the loose plan was to do some sort of short walk in the morning then head for the beer festival in the afternoon, a plan which had worked pretty well when attending Keswick beer festival the previous month. Continue reading →

After my somewhat insane day on the 25th June, where I had left the house in Bromley just after 7am in order to get the first train up to Penrith, and eventually ended up doing Grisedale Pike and Hopegill Head with a 1.45 start, it is fair to say my evening was relatively restrained. To be honest I was a bit knackered so a few drinks were had in a couple of Keswick watering holes along with a rather good Thai green curry in the Thai restaurant on the High Street. The forecast was excellent, so the pre walk drink consumption was pretty restrained in anticipation of another decent walk.

The only issue sometimes with a really good forecast is what to go for! As I was using public transport, I was also a bit restricted by what buses were available. There are loads of buses up Borrowdale during the summer and also the Honister Rambler which goes round a loop towards Buttermere. A few days out the forecast had been for a good morning then rain in the afternoon so the plan had that come to pass had been to get the first bus to Honister and do Dale Head, then drop back down over High Spy and pick up the bus back at Borrowdale. However with a better forecast it seemed a good idea to plump for something that would allow for the possibility of adding a few more to the tally. My tentative decision before hitting the pit was to head back to Braithwaite and tackle some of the hills I hadn’t done on the Western arm of the horseshoe. Continue reading →

Hills: Grisedale Pike, Hopegill Head Wainwrights: : 72 and 73 Who: Me and the mountaineering minion When: : Sunday 25 June Time spent getting to hill: : 6 hours 15 minutes Time spent actually on hill: : 5 hours 30 minutes Weather: : Clear but overcast; windy at times Bog Factor: : Basically non-existent Uses of the Arse crampon: : 1 (accidental) Hangover factor: : Surprisingly low given I was at a beer festival the day before Pre walk drink: : Various real ales (the day before – for the avoidance of doubt!) Post walk drink: : Keswick Brewery best bitter, Cabernet Sauvignon (no not in the same glass!) Post walk watering hole: : The Golden Lion, followed by the Dog & Gun

Those of you that read my blog on a regular or even semi regular basis will by now have spotted something of a theme – or even a couple of themes. Firstly that my walking tends to be a bit haphazard and somewhat mishap prone – and that the mishaps seem to be a mix of unfortunate (car breakdowns, delayed trains, cancelled flights and so forth) and self inflicted (see my post on Glenridding Dodd for a classic example).

This walk had all the potential to be mishap prone. However at some point – simply by the law of averages – there had to be a walk where despite all the possibility for mishaps and indeed probability nothing went that wrong. This may actually be that walk!

The potential for mishaps was definitely there. For starters, actually getting a walk in on the day of travel required a feat of logistics. Firstly getting an early enough train from Euston to get to Penrith in time to either get a bus to Keswick, or a taxi pick up, then get to Keswick in time to get a bus somewhere to start walking at a sensible time. Secondly I was attending a beer festival near my house on the Saturday which clearly had the potential to mess up the logistics not least by failing to get up in time to get the early train at which point the whole thing would collapse. Even given the long summer evenings there would be a cut off point at which starting a walk of any length would not be sensible. I decided to at least mitigate the possibility of mishap by packing all my gear the morning beforehand (i.e. well before the beer festival to avoid any post real ale packing mishaps) and laid out my clothes and filled my hydration bladder. This was organisation on the grand scale for me as something almost always gets forgotten. Continue reading →

One of these days I will write a walk report that doesn’t fit the usual theme. The theme being that there is usually some walking done at some point; there is usually a transport malfunction of some sort; and there is frequently a drink-related malfunction of some sort as well. The transport malfunction usually has the tendency of leading to the drink malfunction i.e. trying to get a late train after a busy week, train then being packed – oh well let’s have a glass (or several) of wine… Suffice it to say that this report sticks to the tried and tested formula! But since part of the point of this weekend was to attend Keswick Beer Festival, it was unlikely this report would deviate much from the norm. It was also my birthday on the 4thJune so celebrating (or given my advancing age, commiserating) was also on the agenda. Continue reading →